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Fresh & Easy Express augments local grocery options

The recent opening of Fresh & Easy Express, known for affordable and nutritious food, gives South Los Angeles residents another place to shop for groceries.

The store, located in the University Gateway mixed-use development at Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street, offers the USC community additional healthy food options.

“The fact that Fresh & Easy Express has entered our market is a sign of even better things to come,” said Jackie Dupont-Walker, president of Ward Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit housing, economic and leadership development firm located near University Park. “I believe developers are realizing that South Los Angeles is a viable, desirable community in which to locate.”

The 3,000-square-foot store is about a third the size of typical Fresh & Easy Neighborhood stores and will offer fresh and prepackaged foods, cleaning supplies and produce.

According to Community Health Councils Inc., a nonprofit health policy and advocacy organization that was instrumental in recruiting Fresh & Easy to South Los Angeles, supermarkets fled urban areas during the 1960s and 1970s due to population shifts, disproportionately affecting communities like South Los Angeles, and led to the decline of grocery options in the area.

In addition to the University Gateway location, the company also operates an express store on Central Avenue and Adams Boulevard and has two additional full-sized neighborhood stores under construction at 52nd Street and Crenshaw Boulevard and Crenshaw and Jefferson boulevards.